This week MindWorks Collaborative is celebrating the career of Cynthia Blanding-Felton. She is an exceptional occupational therapist (OT) of Color who has worked in the clinical and school-based setting for more than 35 years. Currently she works in the Early Childhood Center for Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) and has spent most of her career there, with a focus on supporting early childhood and primary level students to communicate, develop their motor and cognitive skills, and experience the joy and benefits of play.
Cynthia started her career with PGCPS in 1994 and has had a profound impact within the community there. While working at the Early Childhood Center she has managed the augmentative communication equipment and collaborated with classroom teachers and speech therapists to improve the selection and use of voice output communication aids, adaptive switches and toys, and universally designed programs, to ensure students with disabilities are able to be educated with their non-disabled peers in the generalized setting.
In addition to her duties as an OT, she has served on the Process Guide Committee which developed and updates the Prince George’s County Process and Guide for Safe Mealtime Practices and is a member of the Child Find Assessment Team. She also formed and led three different social play groups for primary aged children with Autism, that allowed the team to identify, implement, and adjust differentiated play strategies in an authentic and responsive way.
The Occupational Therapy Services department in PGCPS is very diverse according to Cynthia and it makes her proud to work in that office. Prince George’s County is becoming increasingly diverse with people of all different types of races, cultures, and languages and it helps to have OT’s of all backgrounds. Not only does it improve the capacity of the collective team to met students and families were they are but it also enhances their knowledge and understanding of how to make sure all therapeutic treatments are inclusive for people from different cultures. For instance, feeding is area she works on with students quite a bit and as a culturally competent OT she know that “using something as simple as the food of a student’s culture verses an unfamiliar American food” will better enable her to address feeding issues.
Please join us in celebrating Cynthia’s hard work in supporting culturally proficient OT practices and long dedication to the OT field! Read more about her below:
Name:
Cynthia Blanding-Felton
Title and Organization:
Early Childhood Occupational Therapist with Prince George’s County Public Schools
Hobbies/Interests:
Cooking, crafting and walking
When did you start working in OT?
I began my career 35 years ago at the Montgomery Preschool Achievement Center (MPAC), now it is named the Montgomery Primary Achievement Center. At that time it was the only intensive needs preschool program in Montgomery County, MD.
Why did you choose to become an Occupational Therapist?
Interestingly enough, Occupational Therapy was not my intended career. It was recommended to me by the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs during my first semester at Howard University. I had a work study job in the College of Allied Health and she believed that Occupational Therapy would be a good fit for me. She encouraged me to go to in the Occupational Therapy Department to speak to someone about the program, which I did, and the rest is history!
Can you share a bit about what makes your job so rewarding?
I am doing something that I love and am able to see the fruits of my labor every day. I enjoy treating children and enriching their lives physically, cognitively and emotionally. Some may say I play all day, but play is the occupation of the preschooler. Through play children gain and establish knowledge and skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. It would be only a partial truth to say that my job is to play, but I definitely enjoy working with children and I am rewarded personally from hearing their laughter and seeing the joy from their individual triumphs. I also get to see students in different environments as they transfer skills to new settings and to collaborate with teachers and other professionals committed to my students. It is rewarding to train and coach others and see the successful implementation of the information.
How would you describe a good day at work?
Any day that I am able to positively impact the development of a child or the needs of a teacher regarding a student is a good day. An exceptional day is a day when I am met with a challenge that requires me to immediately problem solve and strategize and then to observe that success within the same day. For instance, I had a new child with autism who was exhibiting anxiety related behaviors that impeded them from participating in instruction. I implemented a new strategy with them and they responded positively and is now participating in the general instructional activities.
Anything else you would like to share about your job/experience of working in OT?
It is important for people to become more aware of this job and for counselors to expose students early to the field. I love being an occupational therapist and owe my career to that Assistant Dean of Student Affairs. She was right on target. Although working in an Early Childhood Center keeps me very busy, I continue to find the job exciting and still very interesting with the unique challenges that I face every day. It motivates me to continue to learn and acquire new skills to address and identify the various barriers to a child’s ability.
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